Exercising apparatus.



R. REACH.

EXERGISING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED DEC. 8, 1910. RENEWED JUNE 29, 1912.

Patented Feb. 11, 1913.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

COLUMBIA PLANOURAPM co.. WASHINGTON. n. c.

R. REACH.

EXERGISING APPARATUS. APPLICATION FILED DEC. 8, 1910. RENEWED JUNE 29,1912.

1,052,962. Patented Feb. 11, 1913.

' 4 SHEETS-$113131 2.

R. REACH.

EXBRGISING APPARATUS. APPLICATION FILED DEC. 8, 1910. RENEWED JUNE 29,1912.

1,052,962. 1 Patented Feb. 11, 1913. 4 SHEETSSHEET 3.

COLUMBIA PLANOGRXPH coqwASmNu'mN. 0v 6.

R. REACH.

EXERCISING APPARATUS. PELIQATION FILED DEG. 8, 1910. RENEWED JUNE 29,1912.

1,052,962. r Patented Feb. 11, 1913. 4 sums-SHEET 4.

RUemZZW 2/ W. Z2m;@m M

tirnrrnn ROBERT REACH, OF II-IILADELFHIA, FENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TOINTERNATIONAL GYIvINASIUM SUPPLY COMPANY, OF SPRINGFIELD,IvTASSACHUSETTS.

EXERCISING APPARATUS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 11, 1913.

Renewed June 29, 1912. Serial No. 706,824.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, ROBERT REACH, a citizenof the United States, residing at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Exercising .tipparatus,of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to exercising apparatus and particularly of thatclass known as wall machines designed for use in gymnasiums or in thehome, and distinguished by having weights attached to carriers adaptedto be raised when suitable handles are drawn upon by the person desiringexercise.

It is the object of my invention to provide an exercising machine ofsimple and effective construction which will permit the person using themachine to secure a large variety of exercising movements. For instance,for the head or neck, the upper chest, the intercostal or othermovements.

The invention consists in the features, combination and arrangement ofparts here in described and particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings Figure 1 is a front view of one form of theexercising machine; Fig. 2 is a side elevation; Fig. 3 is a plan view;Fig. 1 is a detail view of a weight carriage and the weights partly insection; Fig. 5 is a plan view of one of the weights; Fig. 6 is a frontview in the nature of a diagram showing the complete apparatus of thesame form as in Fig. 1; Fig. 7 is a perspective view of another form ofmy invention; Fig. 8 is a detail view of one of the pulleys and theframe for supporting the same; Fig. 9 is a plan view of the upper plateof the frame; Fig. 10 is a sectional view of the upper plate with asupporting bracket attached thereto for affording bearings for the upperpulleys; Fig. 11 is a plan View of the upper bracket; Fig. 12 is aperspective view of the upper part of Fig. 7 showing on one side thearrangement of the upper pulleys, and the supporting means therefor, andon the other side the supporting means with the pulleys omitted.

In these drawings, 1 is the base board adapted to be attached to thewall, and secured to this in any suitable manner is a base plate 2, fromwhich extends upwardly a pair of guide bars 3 and a second pair of guidebars 1. At the upper ends of these guide bars a top plate 5 is securedthereto. This top plate is provided with a boss or bearing 6 centrallyof its front and a bracket 7 is pivoted to this boss by apin or screw 8,the said bracket being adapted to swivel on the said pin and carrying apulley 9. Over this pulley a rope 10 passes extending thence downwardlybeneath a pulley 11 supported in cars or brackets 12 secured to a weightcarriage 13, which has elongated bosses it through which pass the guiderods By this construction the weight carriage is guided in its verticalmovement. The rope 10 after passing beneath the pulley 11 extendsupwardly over a pulley 15, the bracket 16 of which is swiveled in theboss 6 being connected by a pin 16 with the pin or screw 8. From thispulley the rope passes upwardly over a ceiling pulley 17 and thence to ahandle 18 which is of special construction as will be herein described.The rope just above the handle is provided with an enlargement or ball19 which is too large to pass through the opening in the bracket, andthus this end of the rope is maintained in position when the other endis drawn upon; and this last mentioned end is also provided with ahandle or grip 20 and with a ball 21, which performs the same functionsat this end of the rope as the ball 19 at the other end of the rope, asabove described. The pulleys 9, 11 and 15 lie generally in a planepassing from front to rear of the machine so that a person standingdirectly in front of the machine may, by grasping either of the handles18 or 20, secure the desired exercising movements.

In order to provide a machine which will permit a large variety ofexercising movements being obtained, I arrange immediately in rear ofthe Weight carriage 13 above mentioned a second weight carriage 22guided on the rods 4 carrying a pulley 23 which, however, is set withthe plane of its axis extending transversely t0 the plane of the axis ofthe weight pulley 11 before mentioned. At the top of the apparatus andsupported on the cap plate 5 are pulleys 24L25. These are journaledinbrackets or bearings 26 which are swiveled or pivoted to a frame so asto permit. a lateral movement of the brackets toward the front and rearof the machine. These pulleys Q4t25 are arranged at opposite sides ofthe central plane passing from front to rear through the pulleys 9, 11and 15, and the general direction or position of these pulleys is atright angles to that of the pulley 15. The rope 10 for the weightcarriage 22 extends from a handle 26 up over the pulley 25, thencedownwardly around the weight pulley 23, thence upwardly over thelaterally directed pulley 2 1, thence downwardly again around a pulley27, the bracket of which is secured or pivoted to a bearing 28 on theboard or base piece 1. After passing around this pulley the ropeterminates in a handle which is located near the floor. This rope isalso provided with balls or enlargements near the handles to bear uponthe pulley brackets and maintain one end of the rope in fixed position,while the other end is drawn upon.

It will be seen from the above that the upper chest movement may besecured by using the handle 20 and intercostal movement by using thehandle 18, the head or neck movement by using the handle 26*, and othermovements may be secured by using the handle 29.

It will be further observed that the pulleys 11 and 23 being set atright angles to each other and the pulleys 2 L25 being set to worksubstantially at right angles to the normal plane of the pulleys 9 and15, ropes may be employed having their terminal ends directed in variousways, and the apparatus is rendered compact and possible of use by anumber of persons at one and the same time. For instance, with a manworking the upper chest movement, another man can use the back and loinmovement, and so also the head and neck movements may be usedsimultaneously with the intercost-al movement.

In setting up the apparatus, two of the machines thus far described willbe set up side by side so as to make a complete exercising machine. Thiswill bring two handles near the floor adjacent each other like thehandle 29 and a rowing machine may be attached to these ends or they maybe used in various ways. Such a combination will also leave two ends,one extending over the pulley 25 of one element of the complete machineand the other extending over the corresponding pulley of the otherelement, and these may be used without interfering with the use of thehandles 18 and 20.

The weight carriage 13 is orovided with a lug having a head 30 adaptec.to pass down into a recess in the upper weight section 31, wherein thesaid lug is locked by a slide 32 carried by the weight section andhaving its ends projecting at 33 and provided with enlargements so that,by striking these enlargements with the foot, the slide may be shiftedin either one direction or the other so as to lock the weight section tothe carrier or to unlock the same. The slide is shown in plan in Fig. 5,and it is slotted longitudinally so as to receive the guide bars 3 andallow movement thereon. The slide is held to the weight section by acover plate 34 secured by screws 35. Each section excepting thelowermost is provided with a lug 30 similar in all respects to the lugof the weight carriage and adapted to pick up or release the weightsect-ion next below it.

It will be observed from Figs. 1, 2 and 5 that the weights are ofelongated form, and those for the carriage 13 lie parallel to those forthe carriage 22. The handles consist of a bar 37 attached to the ropeend and connected by links 38 to the hand bar 39; and in the case of thehandle of Fig. 7, this consists of a bar 37 attached to the ropeconnected by chains 38 to a bar 39.

In Fig. 7 I show another form of my in vention, in which, as in the formabove described, I employ two weight carriages, one behind the other,and two sets of vertical guide bars with top and bottom plates, to whichsaid guide bars are connected, constituting a single frame structure forthe apparatus. The weight pulleys in this instance are arranged parallelwith each other and with their axes coincident and extending from frontto rear of the apparatus.

Instead of arranging the pulleys for the front rope 10 in differenthorizontal planes, as in the form first described, these pulleys 9 and15 are arranged side by side above the top plate 5 and their generaldirection is toward the front and rear, though, as they are supportedeach in a swiveled bracket 40, they may swing to one side or the otherof their central positions, according to the direction in which theropes are pulled. The pulleys 24c and 25 for the rear ropes 10" aredirected laterally, as in the form first described, and the handles onthese ropes are located at the terminal points of said ropes, as in thefirst form. The bracketscarrying the upper pulleys have enlarged hollowpintle portions 40' at their 42 of a bracket or standard 4C3 secured tothe top plate 5 and having four radiating arms carrying these sockets.

Where in the appended claims I refer to the fact that one of the weightcarriage pulleys is arranged with its axis extending from front to rearof the machine, I refer to either one or the other forms of theapparatus, for in each case at least one of the said weight carriagepulleys is arranged as just stated.

I do not wish to limit myself to supporting the upper bracket for theupper journals of the upper ropepulleys upon the top plate or bracket 5,as said upper bearings may be otherwise supported.

Reverting to the feature of the handles,

it will be observed that the wooden grips are attached to flexibleconnections, and this permits a wrist action to be obtained; that is,the weights can be pulled up by a movement of the wrist alone instead ofrequiring a whole arm movement, the flexi le connections, as, forinstance, at 88, being instrumental in permitting this action to takeplace. The feature of this handle is the two bails or cross pieces heldso that they do not rotate on a cross pin, the two cross pieces beingconnected by flexible means, preferably a chain. The flexible connectionallows one cross piece to be twisted in relation to the other, and inthis twisting action the weight is raised. In handles as heretoforemade, the wooden cross piece used as a grip was arranged to rotate onthe cross pin, and an arm movement is neces sary in order to raise theweight. lVit-h the two cross pieces and the chain an eXercis ing actioncan be secured by a wrist movement alone.

lVhat- I claim is:

1. An exercising machine comprising two ropes, with a weight carriageand pulley for each, a pair of pulleys for guiding the intermediate partof one rope, a second pair of pulleys for guiding the intermediate partof the other rope, an elevated guide pullev and handle for one rope anda low down pulley and handle for the other rope, with handles at thepairs of pulleys for the other terminals of the said ropes, the pairs ofpulleys of the first rope being directed for-- wardly and the pair ofpulleys of the other rope being directed laterally substantially asdescribed.

2. An exercising apparatus comprising a frame made up of two sets ofguide bars, a weight carriage for each set of guide bars, a weightpulley connected with each weight carriage, a pair of ropes one for eachweight carriage, two pairs of pulleys at the upper part of theapparatus, one pair being directed forwardly and the other pair directedlaterally for guiding the ropes, a lower pulweight carriage, a pair ofpulleys at the upper part of the apparatus directed forwardly, a ropehaving a terminal handle at one of the pulleys passing thence downaround the weight carriage pulley, and up over the other pulley of thesaid pair, an elevated pulley for the said rope, a handle on the end ofsaid rope, a second rope, a pair of pulleys therefor directed laterallyat the upper part of the apparatus and on opposite sides of the plane inwhich the first pair of pulleys lie, a handle at one of the said upperpulleys, a lower pulley for receiving the other terminal end of the saidsecond rope, and a handle for said end, substantially as described.

t. An exercising apparatus comprising a frame made up of two sets ofguide bars, a weight carriage for each set of bars, a weightpulleyconnected with each weight carriage, a pair of ropes, one for eachweight carriage, pulleys for the ropes and handles, one set of saidguide bars being located in front of the other, substantially asdescribed.

in combination in a machine of the class described, a pair of weightcarriages arranged one behind the other, two sets of u de bars one foreach weight carriage, a

u ley for each weight carriage, said pulleys eing arranged parallel witheach other, .nd with their axes substantially coincident nd extendingfrom front to rear of the apparatus, a pair of ropes and guide pulleysfor the ropes, substantially as described.

6. In apparatus of the class described, two pairs of weight carriages,two pairs of ropes, a pair of guide pulleys for each rope at the upperpart of the apparatus, one rope of each pair being directed forwardlyand the other rope of each pair being directed laterally by said guidepulleys, a chest handle for one end of each of the forwardly directedropes, an elevated pulley and a handle for the other end of eachforwardly direct.- ed rope, a low pulley and a handle for one end ofeach laterally directed rope, said low pulleys being located in linewith the space between the of weight carriages, and a handle the upperpart of the apparatus for the other end of each laterally directed rope,substantially as described.

7. In combination in an exercising apparatus, two weight carriages, anupper plate, a lower plate, two pairs of guide rods, one pair locatedbehind the other pair, one pair for each weight carriage and connectedwith the upper and lower plates, ropes, forwardly directed pulleys forone rope, laterally directed pulleys for the other rope and handles,substantially as described.

8. In an exercising apparatus a rope, a tween the ends of said crosspiece andthe 10 weight or the like, and a handle consisting rope,substantially as described.

of a cross piece connected with the rope and In testimony whereof, IafiiX my signature a cross piece to be gripped b f 1 the hand, inpresence of two witnesses. 5 said ieces bein connected b exible coninecti ns, substaiitially as desciibed. ROBERT REACH 9. In combination inan exercising appa- WVitnesses: ratus, a rope, a weight, a handleconsisting MARGARET H. LowRY, of a cross piece and flexible connectionsbe- GEORGE E. GoLDBEcK.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washingtom'l). G.

